Chinese Food tour for an ex-Hong Kong resident

My brother in law is coming to town on a weeklong business trip and he's specifically requested to eat a LOT of Chinese food. He spent a semester in Hong Kong last year and now lives in a city without a lot of Chinese food options (Milwaukee). My BIL is staying with us in Manhattan and working during the day and spending evenings/weekends eating Chinese food (and maybe eating leftovers for lunch, ha).

Because he's only here a week, I don't think we'll make it out to Flushing more than 2 times (sadly!). I'm trying to plan some meals in Manhattan (especially since it'll probably just be 3-4 dinners after work). Obviously it's not going to be as good as HK but he's really homesick for this kind of food.

On my list I've got:- Szechuan Gourmet - one of our favs, and if we can do Sichuan in Manhattan we can focus on other stuff in Flushing- Xian Famous Foods - just for kicks since Xian food is definitely unavailable in Wisconsin!- NY Noodletown, as he specifically requested roast meats especially roast goose which he ate every week in Hong Kong. I don't think there's anywhere to get roast goose here, right? I really like the roast pork at NY Noodletown and my husband really likes the roast duck. Is Big Wong a better choice? - A-Wah, as he specifically requested claypot rice, unless there's a Flushing place that does it better/just as well?

If we can't get to Imperial Palace in Flushing I'm trying to decide on a seafood Cantonese restaurant.

Is the currently preferred on South China Garden FKA Cantoon Garden? Or is there another seafood restaurant we should do instead? Doesn't have to be as good as Imperial Palace, just the best available in Manhattan.

Maybe you guys should also try a Fuzhou place in the city? I think scoopg wrote a few reviews. If you guys have the time I think A Taste of Shanghai has excellent shangainese food, especially the pork shoulder in brown sauce. Best of luck i'm sure Lau and others will chime in. I never been there but I think I read on the boards here that south china garden fka cantoon garden is the place of choice in manhattan for cantonese seafood.

Not to mention that just about all the picks seem to be based on information here, gleaned by scoopG and others. Don't care for Sietsema, especially on Chinese food.In re Cantonese seafood, we love the South China Garden - but if you intend to have a conversation there, go at lunchtime - we took friends from France there who loved the food (were blown away by the lobster - and how cheap it was) but it was absolutely unbelievably noisy. It was renovated a couple of years ago and seems to have been made noisier by it! Gives new meaning to the Chinese accolade for an exciting place to be, renao (hot and noisy, although the hot part doesn't particularly apply here).

Sounds like you have everything covered Kathryn and your BIL will be quite pleased!

As to the Cantonese style BBQ roast pork, I give a slight edge to Big Wong over NY Noodletown simply because they slice it thinner; which works better for me texturally. There is a downhill alert on A-Wah from at least two posters: it seems now that they have been discovered they are having to resort to using some short cuts to keep up with demand. Perhaps Lau has been recently and can provide an update. I am not aware of any claypot spots in Flushing. Fuleen Seafood on Division is another fresh seafood choice but I have not been in awhile and have yet to get to South China Garden. As to Flushing you know that you also have the option of visiting one of the two Xian Famous Foods locations and might also consider adding the XLB from Nan Xiang. No need to shock his system by taking him to Best Fuzhou. Save that for next time!

NY Noodletown: Roast goose (unfortunately) is not available in NY. I like NY Noodletown the best, but big wong is fine as well.- South China Garden (Cantoon Garden): this has not changed at all, the food / staff / chefs are all the same. I think its the best cantonese seafood in the city. I'd take a look at the original post that i posted as i think those are generally the best dishes there.- A-Wah: just fyi, ive heard complaints that they are cutting corners and pre-cooking the rice and its not as good anymore, i havent had a chance to re-visit it to confirm, but just an fyi.

Additional:- New Chao Chow: chiu chow / chao zhou food is very popular in HK, you can find their noodle / bbq shops all over the city, id say its probably the 2nd most popular chinese food in HK after cantonese, there is a huge population of them in HK as well. New Chao Chow has the best chili oil in the city (they use dried shimps in it, its very good), specifically get the Combination Rice Stick Soup On The Side (use the chili oil generously) and the chao zhou duck (lu shui kao ya). Those are both really good and very cheap.- Sifu Chio: this place is the only decent wonton noodle soup ive had, ill write a full post on it once my blog is up and running (which will be very soon). I recommend the shrimp wonton noodle soup version with the noodles on the side (you cook the noodles in an oyster sauce)

ah that is good to hear when i was going there alot i was very surprised at the quality of the bo zai fan, i do need to go back there soon, i hope it was just a momentary lapse in quality as it was one of the best in chinatown for sure

I hit A Wah up this weekend and was pretty happy. I went a few times before the Times article came our and once afterward and noted that it did dip a bit in quality (came out much quicker too). Saturday though it came out as good as when I first had it. I was there on an off hour though so that may have helped.

try the very first one, it says like house special in english and in chinese is just says hua zai bo zai fan (the name of the restaurant is hua zai in chinese). It will have lop chong (chinese sausage), a pork patty and pieces of fatty bacon in it. Pour the dark thicker soy sauce they have over it and mix it up, make sure to get the crusty part of the rice on the bottom. I'm pretty generous with how much soy sauce i add, but add as much as you please.

lop chong is the hard dried sausage that they sell at hong kong supermarket and other asian groceries right? if so, i had them growing up as a kid but was never really a fan. i'll give this dish a shot though because i dont think ive ever had claypot rice.

i tried it yesterday for dinner and wasnt really impressed. it just tasted like fried rice with burnt rice at the bottom and sides topped with all those ingredients, maybe i got them on a bad day? but like almost everything in chinatown it was cheap so i'm definiately willingly to try it again, im curious about the eel one, ill probably try that next.

no it should not, the rice on the bottom should be crusty and somewhat burnt. The rice should be flavored with whatever was cooked on top of it (which is why i'm most inclined to like the pork patty with lap chop b/c the flavor runs through it better) and you mix it all up with the darker thicker soy sauce. It's pretty flavorful, but doesn't taste like fried rice.

I will go back there in the next two weeks to try it myself and tell you what i think

its in flushing on the corner of 40th road and prince. The name is not shifu chio in english, its got a burgandy onning and says CHML HK in english. Fyi, noodles and wontons are excellent, broth is just okay....but that beats any other places where all three are bad to ok at best

For a while, at least, they had a paper menu that said Sifu Chio (linked on the place record below). I thought CHML HK might've been the name of a previous tenant, but they've left it untouched on the awning for a long time.